Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Who is God, and what's he like? These are questions to ask as we search the Scriptures to get acquainted with the one who brings joy in all circumstances. Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe opens God's Word to reveal God's character.

But first, building a consistent prayer life can be a challenge. That's why we want to let you know about a special opportunity to soak in Stuart and Jill's wisdom on prayer through a newly curated collection of their messages called *Powerful and Effective Prayer*.

This resource is our thanks for your gift today to help others experience life in Christ through the global ministry of Telling the Truth. So call today to request your copy of this special collection: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill with her message, "Worshiping God."

Jill Briscoe: Remember that we are in the book of Isaiah and we're thinking about God being a shelter from the wind, from the storms of life. Last time we talked about God being like a father. We talked about him being like a doctor. We talked about him being like a faithful husband dealing with an unfaithful wife. All these pictures keep falling out of the Scriptures.

I remember a boy saying to me in the streets of Europe once when I was working with street kids and I was teaching him to read so he could read the Bible. He was 18, a member of a street gang, and he found the Lord. That was the incentive for him to humble himself and ask me, who was a teacher, "Would you, miss, teach me how to read?" I always remember this great big, hulking gang leader with hair down to here and different colors, his leather jacket and chains on his back.

As he learned very quickly, actually—he could read, he just didn't know he could at that point and he learned very quickly, it was very easy, him and the whole gang of kids—we started these classes for them. But I do remember Trevor specifically loving this story in Isaiah 6. I remember him saying, "It's as if he's opened the door of heaven, isn't it? And he's letting us look over his shoulder and see what he's seeing." I said, "That's right, that's what a vision is. That's how these people show us what God was like. He's shown himself to us."

When trouble happens, if we can only keep sane by not figuring out, "What's he doing? Or what isn't he doing? Or why doesn't he work? Or why doesn't he answer my prayers? Or why doesn't he change the situation? Or why doesn't he change this person or my marriage or this, that, and the other?" If we would only ask the question, "What is he like?" Not, "What's he doing?" but, "What is he like?"

If you can't praise God for what he's allowing to happen, praise God for who he is in the middle of what he's allowing to happen. As you start to praise him for who he is, that will help you cope with what's happening or what isn't happening. To be more exact, that's the tougher thing to happen, isn't it? Prayers that aren't answered.

As we look at this vision, we meet Isaiah hurting. This man is hurting. This man's in trouble. King Uzziah has died, and he happened to be a relative of Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah was a popular prophet because Uzziah the king had protected him, had made his ministry easy in a country that was not pro-God at the time. In fact, it was in decline.

At the end or in the middle of Isaiah's reign, they were all going to be carted off to Babylon. Jerusalem was going to be destroyed. The temple was going to be decimated. Everything was going to go. As they were heading towards this dire thing that was going to happen, the prophets who happened to be around—Zechariah was around, Isaiah was a contemporary—were telling the people, "This is going to happen. Why don't you repent? Why don't you get your act together?"

King Uzziah, a godly king in a line of a whole lot of bad lot, all these dreadful kings that had been on the throne and doing all this terrible stuff, along comes a good one here and a good one there, and Uzziah was one of the good ones. He comes along, tries to pull the thing back together, gives Isaiah full reign, gets his money and his wealth and his influence behind him. Just as people are beginning to listen to the message of Isaiah, he dies.

This is an incredibly difficult time politically, spiritually, and personally for Isaiah the prophet. In fact, if you read on from chapter six, the whole thing's downhill. Isaiah never knew a convert. He never saw anything happen, and he ended up a martyr. Tradition says put in a log and sawn in two—that's how he died. And he never saw any fruit, which is an incredible thing when you think of this marvelous book and what it's meant to people down the ages. Now, of course, he must know that because he's in heaven, but he never knew it when he was on earth.

So as Isaiah comes to this point, he does not spend time saying, "Why this? Why that? Why does the good guy die?" Isaiah in his trouble had a great desire to see God. "I want to see God." When you're in trouble, that's the first thing you've got to do: say, "God, give me a great desire to see you, to understand who you are." This spiritual vision can be given to you in many ways.

You can just kneel down and say, "God, bring to my mind, as I am still before you, a picture of Jesus or something that reminds me about what I know of the Scriptures that's going to show me what you're like. I need to be reminded of something." You can open the Bible to Isaiah 6. If you've got a reference Bible, it'll give you other references to other visions. Start and read them all. John the apostle had a vision. Daniel had a vision. Abraham had a vision of God. All these people had visions of God. Just take an hour and read them all.

Guess what? You will have been looking over the shoulder of people that actually had a vision of God. It's one way to see God. If you do that, incidentally, you will be amazed at the similarities of what they saw, whether they lived in Genesis or Revelation, whether they'd read each other's writings or not, because they all saw the same thing. You can see God through the Scriptures in that way.

You can see God in Jesus. When I'm in trouble, I stay in the Gospels when I'm reading because I want to see God in Jesus. What did he say to this woman when she was in trouble? Well, maybe that's what I need to hear he's saying to me. How did he help people when they were in trouble? Follow him through the Gospels, just get in your little sandals and off you go through the story of the Gospels, and you will see God.

You will understand what he's like. Yes, he cares about people in trouble. Look at this, he's weeping at the tomb. He cares when somebody I love dies. He's been there. He's stood in that place. So you can see him in Scripture in those ways. Look over the shoulder of somebody that's seen him. Watch Jesus, for he said, "Look at me and you're looking at God." Remember, Philip said, "If you'd only show us God." He says, "You're looking at him. You're looking at him, Philip. Look at me. You're looking at him."

So look at him and you'll figure it out. As you're in trouble and you look at him and have this great desire well up in your heart to see him, then you'll find some aspect of his character that will comfort you and that will help you. Buy a Bible if you haven't got one and get into the Scriptures in that way. One of the things you'll see in symbol or in action will be this mighty all-powerfulness.

Whether he's raising the dead in the Gospels or whether he's holding back the sea for the Israelites to pass through, I don't know, whatever he's doing, you'll start and see he can do anything. He can do anything. The miracle of the Christian Gospel is he is living in me, and he is living in you. You don't have a little bit of God; you have all of God in all of you. There's nothing else to have, there's nothing more to get.

When you receive Christ, you received all you're going to get. The same God that raised Christ from the dead in all his entirety lives in you. In all his power, he that raised up Christ from the dead lives in you. That's Christianity: Christ in you. How can you say that I'm so powerless? Well, that's another story. Maybe all of God does live in all of you, but he doesn't have all of you. He comes into the door—does he have all the rooms? Has he got free access? That takes a lifetime perhaps to happen. God is all-powerful. You see him in Christ in the Gospels, you can see God in history, you can see God in vision, you can see God in suffering. Uzziah dies, but God is in control. There's a throne up there.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Jill Briscoe on Telling the Truth. She'll be right back with more from her message to encourage you to worship God through all circumstances. But before she returns, let's be honest. Prayer can sometimes feel like a bit of a mystery. Some people feel so confused by how prayer works that they'll just forget it all together. But Scripture paints an exciting picture of what a life of prayer can be and how you can experience it yourself.

That's why we want to send you Stuart and Jill's new five-message collection, *Powerful and Effective Prayer*. These five eye-opening messages will help you push past today's common platitudes on prayer and develop the rich and vibrant prayer life you're longing for. We're excited to send you this one-of-a-kind resource as thanks for your gift today to help keep sharing the life-changing truth of God's love with people around the world through Telling the Truth.

So call today to request *Powerful and Effective Prayer* when you give: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. For many, our smartphones have become our social connection. But we want to help you make a spiritual connection with the Telling the Truth mobile app.

You can listen to daily programs, engage in Bible reading plans, journal, and share your thoughts and prayers on the community wall. Get the Telling the Truth app through your App Store or log on to tellingthetruth.org/mobileapp. And now, here's Jill with more from today's message, "Worshiping God."

Jill Briscoe: When we think of God in heaven, what do we think of? We think of him on the throne. I do, anyway. It is a symbol. We know what a throne means down here. It means authority, it means majesty, it means glory, it means power, it means rule—it means all sorts of things, doesn't it? When these men look through heaven, they all saw this throne, this golden throne. Sometimes it's talked about as a glass; they're trying to find words. "It looks gold but it's glass, it's see-through gold," one of them said.

But there is a throne there, and his train filled the temple. There wasn't a place in the temple that the presence didn't touch; he filled heaven. Of course, the Scriptures say that he fills earth as well. There is no place that he isn't. He is not only omnipotent, all-powerful—there is a throne there—but he is omnipresent. He is omnipotent and he is omniscient, and he knows what we can never know.

We can trust him. We see that he is there, we see that he's on the throne, we see the holiness, the aura, the glory of God. The angels calling, "Holy, holy, holy," and the threshold moving at the sound of the angels' voices. I used to read this and think, "Well, of course, God's speaking and heaven's shaking. Why not? I expect that to happen, don't you? When you go to heaven and God speaks, don't you expect the floor to shake?"

Isaiah looked through and it wasn't God speaking; it was the angels. As the angels cried, "Holy, holy, holy," the threshold shook. I ask myself the question about the holiness of God: if that's what happens at the voice of angels, what will happen at the voice of God? Sometimes I think in our prayers, maybe even in our singing, we just get too sort of pal-y, too friendly, and we diminish the power and the majesty and the glory of God.

I tell you, we talk about going and standing in front of God and seeing his face. I hope we're shaking when we think about that, for the threshold shook at the voice of an angel. God hadn't even begun speaking. God is all-powerful. This great desire to see him and to know him brings you to yourself. "Woe to me," said Isaiah. "Woe to me." The way to stop saying "Why is me?" is "Woe is me."

The thing that keeps you humble is seeing God, seeing his size, and then you see yourself reflected. "Oh, my lips," he said. "My lips." What a strange thing, because I would have thought Isaiah's lips were the best thing about him. This was his thing. I don't know another golden-lipped prophet like Isaiah. This was the best thing he did. Words were weapons he used, words he loved. Poetry, history—he moved people.

He changed a nation. He rebuked them. He kept them alive when they were in Babylon with words—his lips. But when he saw God, the very best thing he did became something he felt defiled, inadequate. "Oh, my lips." I want to tell you as a speaker that I don't think a time I speak goes by when afterwards I don't say that. "Oh, my lips. Why didn't I say this? And why didn't I do that? Why didn't I get it more balanced? Why didn't I do my homework better? Oh, my lips, oh, my lips."

You know the thing when you're worshiping? God will reduce you, and God will bring you back. There will be confession and there will be contrition, and you will say, "Lord, I'm sorry. Let me have another go. Be merciful to me. I'll do it better next time. Train me, use me, help me to work at my craft. Help me to use words for your kingdom and for yourself." He will send an angel with a coal from the altar and he will touch your lips, and he will cleanse that part of your life that you become conscious of that's inadequate.

You'll have, in a sense, the original hot lips of the Bible—the original hot lips, because from then on he began pouring out messages and they were burning, absolutely burning. He hears this voice, voice of the Trinity. "Who will go for us?" Did you notice that? "Who will go for us?" Who's speaking? Trinity are having this conversation. "Well, who's going to go for us?" Jesus says, "Well, I'm going to go for you, but not yet. I'm going to go to Bethlehem, yes, but not yet."

"So who will go for us? Who will go to Israel and get them to come back to God? Who's going to deal with these obdurate people of God?" Isaiah listening says, "Here am I, send me." Immediately God says, "Go." He says, "I'll tell you immediately. Go and tell this people: be ever hearing but never understanding, be ever seeing but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people callous, make their ears dull, close their eyes. Otherwise, they may see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and be healed."

He has this incredible vision. He's just come out of this mourning period. He doesn't know what's going to happen. Uzziah's flipped and gone, and now he's not going to be popular anymore. He's not going to have a chance that he had, and Israel's on the decline. He's all depressed. Then he goes and has his prayer time. He sees God on the throne. God's in control. I must remember that. God's everywhere. He's working it all out.

He's got all the angels. He's all-powerful. He knows it all, he knows and understands. Then he gets all wound up and cleansed, and then he says, "Here am I, send me." Then he hears them say, "Go and tell this people." Then God describes them, and he said, "Well, I know this lot. This is my Sunday school class. I know this lot. This is Israel. I know this lot. I've been preaching to them for six chapters and they haven't turned a hair. Nobody's come back." He says, "Oh Lord, how long? How long do you expect me to go on telling this particular people?"

Guest (Male): You're listening to Jill Briscoe on Telling the Truth. She'll be right back to wrap up today's message to encourage you to worship God through all circumstances. But first, you probably hear people talk about prayer all the time. But aside from knowing that you ought to do it, how much do you truly know about prayer? For example, how does God want to use prayer in our lives? Is he listening to every single request? And can prayer really make a difference?

We'd love to help shine some much-needed light on the subject of prayer by sending you Stuart and Jill's new five-message collection, *Powerful and Effective Prayer*. This specially curated set of messages is our thanks for your gift today to share the life-changing truth of God's Word around the world through Telling the Truth broadcasts and resources.

It's only thanks to the support of generous friends like you that broadcasts like this one can keep going out, reaching others with God's love so they can experience life in Christ. So if you haven't given before, please consider a gift today and remember to request *Powerful and Effective Prayer* when you call and give. Just call 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Now, back to Jill.

Jill Briscoe: This passage is very, very special to me because it pinpoints a time in my life when I was a young mother on a mission station in England. I had struggled through some hard things, and God had taken me through this passage of Scripture. I had been on my knees and seen God and come to this wonderful point, "Here am I, send me." God said to me, "Go and tell this people." I had a suspicion who "this people" was.

"This people," I had a suspicion, were my neighbors. Now I lived in a little house, the gatehouse of a castle, which was a youth center. I was separated from all the things that were going on up at the youth center, which were kids, which is where my heart was. I was down raising three kids. My husband was on the road, and my neighbors were little old ladies.

I was 23, and I didn't feel into little old ladies. I didn't like little old ladies very much. I didn't like ladies, I didn't like women. I didn't want to work with women; I wanted to work with kids. As I went through this transition in my spiritual life and got ready to say, "Here am I, send me," I was conscious God was going to send me to somebody. I got all excited; I thought it was the kids up at the youth center.

But then I started noticing out of my window all these rose-colored cottages and these little old ladies in wheelchairs and hobbling around, and I thought, "Oh no. He doesn't mean *this* is my 'this people', does he?" So just to find out and hoping nobody'd say they'd come, I went and knocked on 25 doors. Took my kids in the prams and knocked on the door. We had some wonderful adventures.

I remember David, he was about five, the others were in the pram. I knocked on this little old lady's door, and I saw this look of horror come over her face as I invited her to this Bible study. I thought, "Well, it's not that frightening, is it?" Then I realized that David had wanted to help, and she had these beautiful tulips planted six inches apart all the way around, like they do in English gardens. He'd collected them all, picked them all, and handed them to her and said, "Nice flowers for the nice lady." He was trying to help Mommy in evangelism. Well, she didn't come, actually.

But I had the courage to go back and ask her next week, and after three or four weeks of visiting—because nobody came for three weeks running. Have you ever put on a meeting and nobody's come? I talked to one of our pastor's wives that did that. Worked and prayed and we planned, invited quite a big group of people—nobody came. It's hard.

Eventually, three turned up. One was blind, one was deaf, and one had heart trouble. I really couldn't believe it because I went back to this passage and sure enough, "Seeing they won't see and hearing they won't hear and their hearts are hardened." *This* is this people! Oh yes. "Go and tell this people, Jill." Oh, not *this* people. Yes, this people—little old ladies, Lord, and I'm 23 and I want to work with kids. "Go and tell this people."

So long story short, I started working with these three little people, all over 75. One deaf, one blind, and one had heart trouble. She died shortly afterwards; I hope she went to heaven. She departed. So that was two left. The blind lady said she wouldn't come out at night—I never understood that. What difference did it make when you think about it?

However, that left me with the deaf one, which was not encouraging. So I screamed Bible verses into her ear for about five weeks and felt that this was all a big waste of time. "Was this the reason we'd left, and I left my teaching and all my training and all this?" I went through all this. I just kept thinking, "Well, here am I, send me. I'll do it."

One day she looked at me and she saw something. She turned her good ear to me and she heard something. I saw her alertness and I realized we were on holy ground, and that night she came to Christ. The next week she brought a friend, and the next week she brought a friend. I ended up with 80 little old ladies. Had to put everything out of the house. I remember Stuart coming home once and everything was in the garden—all the furniture—because there was no room for the little old ladies.

I said to him, "We're giving a cake to the oldest lady." He'd just come off a plane, he'd been away three months. Walks into the house and there's 80 little old ladies all sitting. I say to him, "Will you present the cake?" He said, "I'd love to present the cake. Who to?" I said, "The oldest lady." He said, "How are we going to find out?" I said, "I don't know."

So he got them all up on their feet and he said, "Everybody 30 and under sit down, 40 and under sit down." In the end, this little old lady was left and Stuart presented her the cake. She looked very startled because she wasn't the oldest; she was stone-deaf—that was why she received the cake. Then all the other little old ladies were mad and, you know, it wasn't very good. I decided not to involve my husband in little old ladies anymore as he didn't know what he was doing.

One day those little old ladies said to me, "We wish our kids could hear you, Jill." So I said, "Well, bring them along." We moved out of my house into this little church, and they brought their kids. Their kids were between the ages of 55 and 70. So we were working in the right direction. I had to go through the whole thing again. "Well, I don't like middle-aged ladies, Lord." Well, "Here am I, send me." You know, see God in control, the whole thing. "And yes, I'm willing and ready."

Well, "Go and tell this people." I came to love middle-aged ladies—took a little while—and we filled the chapel. Now we had old ladies and middle-aged ladies. It was three and a half years later that one of those middle-aged ladies, Mrs. Probuscher, said to me, "Wish our kids could hear you, Jill. Wish our grandkids could hear you, Jill." I said, "Bring them along." God gave me my kids, but not until I'd been faithful with one little deaf lady.

Because when you have a vision of God and a vision of yourself and it results in saying, "Here am I, send me," he will send you to *some* people. I don't know who it'll be. You've got to be willing to do it in his power. Stick with it, commit to it, pray for them, love them into the kingdom. But from that obedience will come a people, a remnant, a believing group God will bless. "Here am I, send me."

Guest (Male): Thank you for that, Jill. Before you go, we want to remind you to request Stuart and Jill's newly curated five-message collection, *Powerful and Effective Prayer*. It's our thanks for your gift today to continue sharing God's Word through Telling the Truth broadcasts and resources.

So please request yours when you call and give: 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Thanks so much for listening today. Join us next time as the Briscoes share more powerful truth from God's Word. Come again and experience abundant life in Christ next time on Telling the Truth.